Jacob's Dream of the Ladder: Midrashic Traditions
This link between territorial sovereignty and faith underlies orthodox interpretations of Jacob’s dream in the writings of “aggadic midrashim” – or the collected interpretations of and supplements to the non-legal stories of the Hebrew Bible, most of which were composed in late antiquity. Here is the midrashic re-telling of Jacob’s dream and the dream’s meaning:
Many significant elements are introduced here. First, we have the connection between the ladder/bridge to heaven and the construction of the temple, which would become (and remain) the center of the Jewish spiritual topography. This is a foreshadowing technique to further solidify the concept of the temple as the center of the Jewish imagination and thus the destruction of the temple (twice) as the key event in Jewish history. The construction of miracles -- the stones merging and transforming -- reflect the medieval mind's deep belief in symbols and the divine meaning of numerical connections, which reflect a deeper divine order to the universe.
It was the Divine purpose not to let Jacob pass the site of the future Temple without stopping; he was to tarry there at least one night. Also, God desired to appear unto Jacob, and He shows Himself unto His faithful ones only at night. At the same time Jacob was saved from the pursuit of Esau, who had to desist on account of the premature darkness. Jacob took twelve stones from the altar on which his father Isaac had lain bound as a sacrifice, and he said: "It was the purpose of God to let twelve tribes arise, but they have not been begotten by Abraham or Isaac. If, now, these twelve stones will unite into a single one, then shall I know for a certainty that I am destined to become the father of the twelve tribes." At this time the second miracle came to pass, the twelve stones joined themselves together and made one, which he put under his head, and at once it became soft and downy like a pillow. It was well that he had a comfortable couch. He was in great need of rest, for it was the first night in fourteen years that he did not keep vigils. During all those years, passed in Eber's house of learning, he had devoted the nights to study. And for twenty years to come he was not to sleep, for while he was with his uncle Laban, he spent all the night and every night reciting the Psalms.
Many significant elements are introduced here. First, we have the connection between the ladder/bridge to heaven and the construction of the temple, which would become (and remain) the center of the Jewish spiritual topography. This is a foreshadowing technique to further solidify the concept of the temple as the center of the Jewish imagination and thus the destruction of the temple (twice) as the key event in Jewish history. The construction of miracles -- the stones merging and transforming -- reflect the medieval mind's deep belief in symbols and the divine meaning of numerical connections, which reflect a deeper divine order to the universe.
On the whole it was a night of marvels. He dreamed a dream in which the course of the world's history was unfolded to him. On a ladder set up on the earth, with the top of it reaching to heaven, he beheld the two angels who had been sent to Sodom. For one hundred and thirty-eight years they had been banished from the celestial regions, because they had betrayed their secret mission to Lot. They had accompanied Jacob from his father's house thither, and now they were ascending heavenward. When they arrived there, he heard them call the other angels, and say, "Come ye and see the countenance of the pious Jacob, whose likeness appears on the Divine throne, ye who yearned long to see it," and then he beheld the angels descend from heaven to gaze upon him. He also saw the angels of the four kingdoms ascending the ladder. The angel of Babylon mounted seventy rounds, the angel of Media, fifty-two, that of Greece, one hundred and eighty, and that of Edom mounted very high, saying, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High," and Jacob heard a voice remonstrating, "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the uttermost parts of the pit." God Himself reproved Edom, saying, "Though thou mount on high as the eagle, and though thy nest be set among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence."
This is an extremely interesting section. The angels here are not servants of God, as in the account of Philo, but are God's adversaries, rebels, supporters of the opponents of the Jews. These angels also represent the unfolding of history -- a history full of turmoil and humiliation for the descendents of Jacob. The Babylonians, of course, captured Jerusalem and destroyed the first temple. The Medians overcame the Babylonians. The Greeks under Alexander the Great then conquered the whole region. And it under Greek rule that the Maccabean revolt takes place. Finally, Edom (the connection between Esau and Edom clear to all) represents both Rome (image of the eagle as symbol of Rome) and the subsequent Christian world. Written in the period of Roman and perhaps Christian ascendance, the ladder story offers the hope for Jewish redemption at the end of historical time.
Furthermore, God showed unto Jacob the revelation at Mount Sinai, the translation of Elijah, the Temple in its glory and in its spoliation, Nebuchadnezzar's attempt to burn the three holy children in the fiery furnace, and Daniel's encounter with Bel.
As above, the idea of the ladder as history or History is key. For Jews, now a diaspora, the notion that History is not simply a matter of fortune or brute force or utter chance, but that history is a process preordained and ultimately planned by God was a powerful palliative. All suffering, all destruction, all privation and humiliation was part of God's will, a will that would end with the return of the people to power and prestige -- an end that would make good on that original territorial promise between God and Jacob. Note the emphasis on the territorial pledge below:
In this, the first prophetic dream dreamed by Jacob, God made him the promise that the land upon which he was lying would be given to him, but the land he lay upon was the whole of Palestine, which God had folded together and put under him. "And," the promise continued, "thy seed will be like unto the dust of the earth. As the earth survives all things, so thy children will survive all the nations of the earth. But as the earth is trodden upon by all, so thy children, when they commit trespasses, will be trodden upon by the nations of the earth." And, furthermore, God promised that Jacob should spread out to the west and to the east, a greater promise than that given to his fathers Abraham and Isaac, to whom He had allotted a limited land. Jacob's was an unbounded possession.
From this wondrous dream Jacob awoke with a start of fright, on account of the vision he had had of the destruction of the Temple. He cried out, "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, wherein is the gate of heaven through which prayer ascends to Him." He took the stone made out of the twelve, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it, which had flowed down from heaven for him, and God sank this anointed stone unto the abyss, to serve as the centre of the earth, the same stone, the Eben Shetiyah, that forms the centre of the sanctuary, whereon the Ineffable Name is graven, the knowledge of which makes a man master over nature, and over life and death.
Jacob cast himself down before the Eben Shetiyah, and entreated God to fulfil the promise He had given him, and also he prayed that God grant him honorable sustenance.
This is an amazing section! In the second paragraph above, the assumption is made that Jacob sees the destruction of the temple -- again emphasizing the centrality of the temple of the later Jewish mind. The temple itself becomes almost a symbol of all holy Jewish territory. A historical rationale is then provided, taken of course from later biblical writings: history moves based on the quality of Jewish actions and belief. When Jews stray, they are punished. When Jews are righteous, they reap rewards. History, in other words, has meaning. In addition, the notion of ladder or staircase gives way in the above section to one of gateway. But it is no real gateway, for the physical or even the spiritual being cannot ascend to and pass through it. Humans can only send prayer through the gateway. Prayer becomes the only conduit between humans and the divine. Finally, the piece ends with a link between Jacob's stone pillow and the holiest site of Temple and post-temple Judaism, the foundation stone, which was thought to be in the inner sanctum of Solomon's Temple and is now within the Muslim Dome of the Rock.
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